The Polish head of state will entrust Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the candidate of the Law and Justice (PiS) party that won the most votes in the Polish parliamentary elections on October 15, with forming a government. This was announced by Andrzej Duda himself on Monday evening.

The head of state recalled that during the discussions with the leaders of the parties he had entered the parliament, the PiS and the second-placed, now opposition Civic Coalition (KO) expressed their conviction that they have a parliamentary majority.

Duda justified the decision to entrust Morawiecki with the formation of the government by saying that

"continues the good parliamentary tradition, according to which the winning coalition gets the first chance".

He put it into perspective: in accordance with the constitution, in the event of failure to form a government, in the second round, the lower house of the parliament entrusts someone with the composition of the cabinet by an absolute majority vote.

PiS has 194 seats in the 460-member lower house (Sejm). The opposition bloc consisting of the KO, the Polish Peasant Party (PSL), the Polska 2050 (Polska 2050) party, and the New Left coalition has a total of 248 mandates. At the end of October, the four groups agreed on parliamentary cooperation and the creation of a parliamentary majority.

    Donald Tusk, the president of the Civic Platform (PO) leading the KO, opposition candidate for prime minister, announced on Monday evening that his party will be ready by Friday to sign the coalition agreement to be concluded with the other opposition groups, which, he said, could take place on Sunday.

In his speech on Monday, Andrzej Duda also confirmed that he will convene the inaugural session of the parliament for November 13, which will be chaired by the co-speaker he appointed, former Minister of Agriculture Marek Sawicki, a representative of the opposition PSL.

The Sejm and the upper house of parliament, the Senate, hold their inaugural session separately.

According to the Polish constitution, the old cabinet resigns at the session of the new parliament, but remains in office until the new government is installed. The head of state will give Morawiecki an official mandate to form a government within fourteen days of the inaugural session of the parliament. The new cabinet and the government program must be presented to the Sejm within another two weeks after the appointment, and the lower house decides on approval in a vote of confidence. An absolute majority and the presence of at least half of all representatives are required to accept the government.

MTI

Photo: Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, president of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), speaks to his supporters, with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (b3) in the background, waiting for the results of the Polish parliamentary elections in Warsaw on October 15, 2023.
According to polls based on voter interviews, PiS won with 36.8 percent of the votes. For MTI/EPA/PAP/Pawel Super